SDCC 08: Avatar Creators Interview

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Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko talk Airbender.

By Tory Ireland Mell

With all-time series high viewers and a number-one spot on TV with kids and tweens, Sozin's Comet" writers and show creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko were extremely friendly and filled with excitement over the movie and the show.

I sat down with the duo at Comic-Con and talked about what many people are buzzing about with the movie, the score. Co-creator Bryan Konietzko said, "Jeremy Zuckerman composed it and they used a live 16-piece string ensemble, which we couldn't afford for the normal series." I mention the Azula/Zuko fight and Konietzko jumped in, "That's our favorite moment. We made a conscious decision, because we knew there'd be so much fire and explosions and loud sounds that for that scene we made a decision to push the sound effects as beautiful as they were, we pushed them very quiet and let this tragic music play and be in the fore-front, to contrast Aang's story which was so intense, it was so emotional and we were so proud of Jeremy, we knew he'd do great!" I immediately asked if there were plans to release the soundtrack and Konietzko said, "Hopefully we'll get to release it, we're trying to figure it out."

Having an American show done in anime style I was curious if they were lifetime anime fans, DiMartino said, "Growing up, I wasn't really, I'd watch shows like Tranzor Z (Mazinger Z in Japan), but I don't think I had the concept of anime, I was just like, that's a cool giant robot, and then later on Bryan got me into Cowboy Bebop, and Miyazaki, and stuff like that, I wouldn't say I am a hardcore anime fan, but there are select series that I really enjoy." Konietzko said, "I was into stuff when I was a kid, like Mike said; Tranzor Z, Robotech, Akira, and then when I was in college I saw some stuff and it was getting really masochistic and it really turned me off, it's not what I was interested in. Unfortunately I kind of wrote off the whole industry, it wasn't until Dave Filoni -- our friend and director on Avatar -- back in the day he turned us onto cool stuff."

Bryan Konietzko (L) and Michael Dante DiMartino (R)

The Airbender live-action movie is currently in preproduction. Konietzko said, "It's going really well. We love the script, and working with Night (M. Night Shyamalan) it's been really collaborative and he's been really respective of us and the material, and we've been able to help out on some of the artwork, and consulting. It'll be a pretty faithful adaptation of season one, that's the first movie, and hopefully there'll be two more after that." DiMartino said, "From day one when [Paramount Pictures] said they wanted to do a live-action movie, we wanted it to be its own thing. We already did the series, we did it our way and we want the live-action thing to take on a life of its own. We're excited to see it reinterpreted."

When asked about Zuko's mother, they both laughed and DiMartino said, "Someday that could be answered, if the right environment presents itself."